Should non-citizens be allowed to vote in U.S. elections? In this episode, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) joins Jenny Beth Martin to discuss the SAVE Act, a bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. They expose how the Left is using loopholes in voter registration laws and the census to gain political power—and what conservatives must do to stop them. Chip also shares why amnesty is a non-starter, how open borders hurt both Americans and illegal migrants, and what’s really at stake in the fight for national sovereignty.
Should non-citizens be allowed to vote in U.S. elections? In this episode, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) joins Jenny Beth Martin to discuss the SAVE Act, a bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. They expose how the Left is using loopholes in voter registration laws and the census to gain political power—and what conservatives must do to stop them. Chip also shares why amnesty is a non-starter, how open borders hurt both Americans and illegal migrants, and what’s really at stake in the fight for national sovereignty.
X/Twitter: @RepChipRoy | @chiproytx | @jennybethm
Website: https://roy.house.gov/ | https://chiproy.com/
Chip Roy (00:00):
Alright, let's keep this simple. That we should require under law that only American citizens be allowed to register to vote for federal elections. That simple
Narrator (00:10):
Keeping our republic is on the line and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she is most proud of is Mom To Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:42):
Today we are joined by one of my favorite Congressman, Congressman Chip Roy from Texas. Congressman Roy, thank you so much for joining me today.
Chip Roy (00:49):
So great to be with you.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:51):
So you were one of the co-sponsors for the Save Act and we're going to be doing a bus tour around the country, making sure people are aware of the Slave Act and working to try to get it attached to must pass legislation. Would you tell people a little bit about what it is and why you decided to be supportive of it?
Chip Roy (01:09):
Yeah, so about 16 or 17 months ago, I think in the spring of 24, it was very clear to me in election season how important it was to ensure that only American citizens vote in American elections. And so I work with some mutual friends of ours, great folks like Cleta, Mitchell and others, Steven Miller, who's obviously now a deputy chief of staff in the White House. We worked to identify what we thought would be the best framework heading into an election season for something that's pretty targeted and simple. There are a lot of things we need to do on election reform. For example, the census, we need to only count citizens. There's lots of things, but on this we thought, alright, let's keep this simple, that we should require under law that only American citizens be allowed to register to vote for federal elections. That simple.
Chip Roy (01:55):
And because under current law, federal law has been interpreted actually to prevent states from even being able to check citizenship. Arizona, for example, has two sets of roles, one for their state elections where they do try to ensure citizenship, one for federal, where they're prohibited from doing so because of the way the judges interpreted something. So we thought we should clarify. It's a simple bill, it requires proof of citizenship. Now it gives some time, it wasn't going to impact the election last year, but what it was going to say was that when any state goes forward and changes the roles, when there's any modifications going forward, that yeah, when you go register to vote, you just got to demonstrate your citizenship. You can do it with a passport, a real ID in states that have adopted it. I know some of our supporters don't always love real id, but if a state has, then that will work. And then there's other forms of ID that you can use, but we passed it out of the house last year with bipartisan support. I think we had five Democrats join us. I think that's from memory. And then we passed it again this year because obviously Chuck Schumer didn't want to bring it up last year in election season and we passed it out of the house and then we'll see what happens in the Senate.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:03):
And right now, so far it has not been brought up in the Senate, which is part of why we just want to bring awareness to the issue and then attach it to must pass legislation, legislation that Congress feels like they have to pass or the whole world will end.
Chip Roy (03:17):
No, I agree and I think we should be mindful of those opportunities. I think there are a number of key issues that when there's a government funding bill or the National Defense Authorization Act or say FISA reauthorization, which you and I and others have a lot of concerns, but what's in FISA, which is Foreign Intelligence surveillance if you're not familiar with government acronyms. So there are a number of things that are going to be moved. The Farm Bill, things that will move this year potentially. And I agree with you, there are bills that we should consider. The SAVE Act should be one of 'em because it's a basic premise. I think it's an overwhelming 85 15 type issue, 80 20 issue that only American citizens should vote in American elections. So let's advance it. Let's force the Senate to act on it. Let's force Democrats to take down a must pass bill because they don't think that only American citizens should vote. Let them do that. Let them send that message to the American people. I think there are other issues like Central Bank digital currency and other things that overwhelming majority of American support we in the house should be on offense working with the Senate to force these tough votes on recalcitrant Democrats.
Jenny Beth Martin (04:22):
Yeah, I think that it's absolutely correct and it's crazy that right now, I think if it did come up in the Senate, I would be surprised if we had enough to end a filibuster or get the bill even to the floor. And it is an 80, 85, 20 to 15 issue. It just,
Chip Roy (04:40):
Well, and for the average listener out there who doesn't follow all this the way you and I do, the overwhelming problem that we have is that you need 60 votes in the Senate to move anything through. And we have 53 Republicans of whom two or three aren't always with us. So you got to come up with seven Democrats and hold two or three of your most moderate members to get to 60 votes to move something that we believe is important. Now, the one way to get around that, or a couple of ways to get around that was the reconciliation process, which was the centerpiece of the big beautiful bill. So we were able to get a number of things done there, but you can't move big policy, at least not unless it's tied directly to spending. So we're trying to figure out how things like the Save Act and other things, central Bank digital currency, if we do a second reconciliation package, can we frame some of that stuff in a way that we can move it through the process when they have to determine whether it's policy or spending.
Chip Roy (05:38):
But importantly though, I think it matters, you can force the hands of Democrats who don't want to vote for it by attaching it to these must pass bills. Because then when we do it, as we said, let's say you've got a government funding bill at the end of September and we're back and forth on it and it's a CR or it's an appropriations bill, whatever it is, and we attach say the save act to it, well then let the Democrats kill that and then send it back to us without the save act. Then they would've voted that down. And then we go to the polls and the American people and say, Democrats apparently believe that non-citizens should vote in American elections.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:12):
Well, and if it is with the funding bill, they risk a government shutdown.
Chip Roy (06:16):
Correct.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:16):
And the Democrats usually want to avoid a government shutdown. Yeah.
Chip Roy (06:20):
One of their biggest constituencies is the government bureaucrat, although they're dwindling under President Trump thankfully. But yes, that's exactly right. They don't like shutdowns and so let's force their hand.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:33):
And then when it comes to the Save A, there are people who complain about it and they say, we're trying to suppress a vote or we're trying to make it too difficult to be able to vote. I think it's important to make sure people understand this bill is only talking about registering to vote. So you don't have to show a passport or a birth certificate when you actually go to vote. It's just for registering. And it pretty much grandfathers the people in who are already registered. Am I correct about that?
Chip Roy (07:02):
That is largely correct, but certainly it's really important that people understand it's not going to impede your ability to vote. If you're American citizen, you're registered to vote, what it will do is if something changes, you move or you have a life event, this is the normal trigger for anything, right? When you have to go and change your information, then you have to go do that and go make the modification. And so this is one of the things that they were falsely bringing up. It's red herring that, oh, married women weren't going to be able to vote. Patently absurd. The fact is what they were trying to say is, oh, if a woman gets married and changes her name, that's somehow going to impede a right to vote. Well, that's just not true. First of all, virtually when my wife got married, every woman I know, and when they get married, they've got to go.
Chip Roy (07:46):
If they change their name, they then have to go deal with that for whatever, it's new driver's license, whatever. So you're likely taking care of that anyway. And if you're already registered to vote, you're registered to vote. And then if there's the changing event, then you can go make those changes. And we make it to where state law, and we had a very specific exception, states can draft that in whatever way they see fit to ensure that no one's right to vote is impeded. So we took care of that issue. We saw that people would raise those issues and we don't want to make it difficult for anybody to vote. What we do want to make it difficult is for non-citizens to be able to vote. That's it.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:22):
It's pretty simple. And Americans agree with this, and I think many are just shocked that it isn't even that it's controversial.
Chip Roy (08:31):
Well, and a basic duty of being a citizen is voting and so going to register and taking this time and the steps to do that, going to show up to vote. That is I think the basic of the duty that we have when we're asking our men and women in uniform to sit in foxholes and defend us. We can go fill out a form if we need to ensure that we're guaranteeing that only citizens vote. Otherwise, you're turning country over to the entire world and you're losing the country. So we're asking for a basic amount of effort at the appropriate time when you're registering to vote. And we allow ample ways for the states to give flexibility for their people to be able to do that.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:09):
And I am very hopeful that we can get this passed. Now, there's also something that people have been talking about when it comes to citizens and non-citizens in the census. What is the controversy or the questions about that and how do you think it should be addressed?
Chip Roy (09:28):
Yeah. Well, under our current law and the way it has been interpreted in terms of counting persons in the census under the Constitution, it is the case that anyone who is here, including those who are here illegally, are counted in the census. So what that means is for the millions of people that have come here illegally or who were illegally dumped into the United States via the abuse of asylum and parole, which is what the Biden administration did very systematically and very strategically and very purposely, they dumped people in the United States, which then significantly changed the populations in numerous districts across the country. And we believe, and Democrats have acknowledged this, that it is plussed up a lot of blue states in terms of their jurisdictions or in even a red state. It's plussed up the population in blue areas within those states. So we believe that we should modify the census to be clear that we're only counting citizens for the purpose of the census. We believe we can do that, and that it is not only the right policy, but we believe we can do that under the constitution without an amendment to the Constitution because we believe we've got that power to say that only citizens should be counted for the purposes of what we're talking about, which is choosing your representatives.
Chip Roy (10:51):
You can do a headcount for purposes of figuring out what you're going to do, but for determining who's voting and representing the people we believe that should be only representing citizens. And look, it's so important, we should consider adjusting the census count here in the mid decade rather than waiting until 2030 because it's such a critical change that needs to occur. So I would strongly encourage this White House and this Congress to try to address that issue.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:18):
If they address it mid decade, would that be a whole new census or would it just be going back and trying to, if they didn't ask if you're a citizen or not, how would they know?
Chip Roy (11:28):
I think there are a couple of ways you can go about do that. We make estimates in between the census times. I mean, you do have to do an official counting. I think you could go back and do some modification. You might need to do a total recount. But again, I think it would be worth it for the purposes of making sure that we've got a Congress that is actually representing the people of the United States, the citizens who are here. That's I think a core distinction between the parties today and between those of us who consider ourselves constitutional conservatives is do you believe in sovereignty or not? Do you believe that this is a country, JD Vance has spoken a lot about this and he's completely correct that we need to make sure we're defending our nation because we are a set of people with values and beliefs and laws that decide who we are.
Chip Roy (12:13):
We're not just an idea. I mean, I love that notion. It's like, well, America is an idea. Well, yes in a concept, but we are a nation, a nation of people, of laws, of history, of culture, and we need to protect that. There's a reason that people around the world want to come here. And that is the rule of law. That is that it is a safe and good place to live, raise a family prosper. It's not just because there's some notion that, oh, there's this, oh, the Statue of Liberty, oh, that's the nation. It's like, well, that's nice, but we have to be a defensive of our sovereignty, and that includes our borders, that includes our people, that includes who becomes a citizen, that includes what you teach in schools, that includes English as the language. These are important notions, and I think we need to fight for them.
Jenny Beth Martin (12:57):
I think it's very important that we fight for them. And there are people who enter the country and are here legally, and I think that it's not, they want to make sure the rule of law is being followed otherwise it's unfair to them when people who are not here illegally get some sort of advantage over them.
Chip Roy (13:17):
Yeah. This is, I think, lost on a lot of people when people don't understand why President Trump, Republicans generally are gaining with the Hispanic population, particularly in South Texas and throughout the country, it's because the people who come here do it the right way. They don't want people to break the law and run the system and then get in front of the people who have been waiting and to do it the right way. Why should they get to the front of the line? That goes to the heart of this amnesty question. There are a lot of my colleagues who I think are motivated with a decent purpose. There are good human beings that are in part of this whole thing. And I've said that the media wants to twist words and say, ah, chip Roy is opposing President Trump's ice stuff now because no, you know what I said?
Chip Roy (14:00):
I said, these are human beings and we should treat them accordingly. I think the Democrats that have created this system and dumped people in the United States encouraged them to come here, have dramatically harmed these human beings, uprooted them, harmed their host countries who have been having a bleeding of their people coming here to then have to be under the thumb of cartels to then be in a part of fentanyl trade, to have little girls getting sold in a sex trafficking trade to then be here and have to be in the shadows because they're not really legal or to have false legal status under this notion of parole or asylum, which isn't even the appropriate use of those things. That is wrong. They're treating these people like chattel. So I try to figure out how do you help? These are human beings. We have to as Christians figure out how to manage that, but we also have to maintain our sovereignty and do it the way.
Chip Roy (14:51):
So I think this is the overriding thing. You don't want to let the rule of law get turned on its head and then have people who've done it the right way be at the back of the line when the people who have done it the wrong way get to the front. That's just wrong. One last point on that, Jocelyn Nun Gray was brutally murdered by some members of ua, the violent Venezuelan gang. And her mom has become a friend. She's a wonderful woman, lives near Houston, and she's been a great advocate. And Jocelyn was killed about a year ago.
Jenny Beth Martin (15:25):
And
Chip Roy (15:27):
Alexis, who, her mom is awesome. And she was explaining to me, we were sitting in the judiciary committee and we were just talking, she's talking about her family history, Hispanic talking about how her family, her grandfather, her dad had a business, never went to the government, didn't want handouts, didn't want give away. They just wanted to earn their living and do the right thing. That's the vast majority of the people who come here. And this notion that we need a socialist welfare state with giveaways and getting people the front of the line totally undermines the American dream, and it's completely backwards for all the immigrants who want to come here.
Jenny Beth Martin (15:59):
Well, and when you harm the rule of law, they're escaping. They're trying to escape countries where the rule of law is not recognized, where they don't know what the law is going to be because rulers decided, and it can change from day to day based on the whims of the rulers. If we start doing that here, then it creates that same kind of uncertainty and Banana Republic, and people don't know what the law is and whether it applies to them from day to day. So it winds up creating in America the very thing they're trying to escape.
Chip Roy (16:32):
And to my point about what it's doing to the immigrants that seek to come here is it puts them in danger.
Chip Roy (16:40):
It puts them in a kind of perilous, false notion of what the law is here. It allows them to believe that, oh, it doesn't matter what I do, I get to claim asylum. Well, that's not what our law says. It doesn't matter what I'll do. They'll just let me in and parole me in, and I'll be able to come here and get a job indefinitely and just stay here and live under the shadows or more be given status. And that's not what our law says. So you're turning it all on its head. You're putting them in danger and putting them in a bad position by doing that. And that's what Democrats did. They exploited immigrants for crass political gain. That's what Democrats did. That's what they're doing. That's what they're doing right now. And they want to continue to do it for literal that political power. And it's shameful.
Jenny Beth Martin (17:21):
It is shameful. And many of the people who came, especially under the Biden administration, they were paying cartels in order to get them through and up to the border. And they may even still have debt to the people who got them into America. So they wind up becoming almost indentured servants here because they owe money to the people who got them the whole thing. It is exploitative. And the people who talk about DEI and are upset because we had slavery in our country, they ignore the fact that their policies right now are enslaving people and it's just wrong.
Chip Roy (17:59):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And there's an extension of all of that because in addition to the human trafficking, which isn't just sex trafficking, right, there's labor camps, we found those folks who were here illegally, including children who were working out in California. In California, and that's happening everywhere. And it's not just California. It's all over the country. And then we'll find these stash houses and you'll find people that are just stuck in these houses and being put in the sex trade and all these things. But it's also what we're doing to our local communities because for example, under ply rdo saying that the court said, well, you have to provide an education to anybody who's here. Well, I get the heart behind that, but you know what that does to a local school district.
Jenny Beth Martin (18:44):
Yeah.
Chip Roy (18:44):
Do you know what that does when you have to go figure out English as a second language for a local district and community? What that does for the local hospitals, the local police department, and that's what's been happening in Texas now for a long time. And that was just put on steroids under the Biden administration with absolutely no care or concern for the people in Texas or any other jurisdiction who are having to deal with that, Arizona and other states. So it's bad for the communities, it's bad for the migrants, all in this false name of compassion that somehow open borders is good because it's going to allow, oh, then person X will be able to achieve the American dream. And then what they want to do is turn it into a socialist quote, utopia, which is the opposite. You bankrupt the country, you drive up debt, you destroy our culture and our community.
Chip Roy (19:32):
When the migrants who came here in the various waves in the 18 hundreds, 19 hundreds, and there was ebbs and flows for the vast majority of them, it was their parents who were forcing them to say, you're going to learn English, you're going to become a part of this. That's what being an American is about. And they were proud for it, right? Lou Gehrig, the famous baseball player, his parents German, they were trying to get him to know, you're going to learn English, you're going to get out, you're going to become a doctor or whatever. And mom famously was disappointed that he became a baseball player and then he became Lou Gehrig. But that was the American story. Now it's supposed to be, oh, no, no, you can't do that. So what? We're going to have like 50 languages, we're going to break down our entire country, make it harder for people. And I think that's destructive. The good news is this administration thinks the opposite. Tom Homan is doing a good job. Stephen Miller secretary, no, the president enforcing the law, stopping the flow at the border, trying to remove people. But we need Congress to step up. And as usual, Congress is always late to the game.
Jenny Beth Martin (20:30):
They are always late to the game always. But that's why the question that's going on right now about the census winds up being so important. And so do you think that there's going to be, does there have to be a legislation to address that?
Chip Roy (20:46):
Yeah, there can be. And I certainly think that we ought to consider that in working with the administration. But in addition, because that's something the administration's got to decide if they'd want to execute and how they would do it between the two normal decade counting. But also we just need to push back on this notion of amnesty. And that is unfortunately gaining steam among several Republicans in the house and they say, oh, it's not an amnesty. Well, but it is. I mean, you look at the legislation they're trying to put forward and they're trying to say, well, we're going to provide a path to get status. And once you start doing that, then you're turning everything on its head, and then you're going to create a new magnet for people to come and you're going to make it to where people believe that like the 86 amnesty under Reagan or future efforts, that people will be able to come here no matter what they do, break the law, get here, and then ultimately be able to stay.
Chip Roy (21:34):
And that's the problem. And so however well intended any of these laws are, look, I have tons of businesses in the district that I represent throughout Texas who are concerned. They've had labor that has been tied into all of this. Home builders, you've got people who do landscaping, people who run hotels, restaurants. I get it. I understand. But there's another piece to this, which is making sure that all American citizens have jobs that all American citizens can go get a well paying job, and the let wages equalize come to an equilibrium that is fair. Right now we've got far too many American citizens that are not seeking work that are on unemployment, that are getting welfare checks, and we're not doing enough to ensure they can get those jobs. And so that's a part of this whole process. So the idea of amnesty is a non-starter for Republicans.
Chip Roy (22:26):
You always want to dumb down the definition of amnesty and then try to tell me it's not. We're onto you. We were onto you 20 years ago. We're onto you now and we're going to keep holding that line. But that's going to be an important fight coming up that under no circumstances should we have any conversation about status at all, at least until we have passed the elements of HR two that we passed in the last Congress, the strong border security bill to make permanent the provisions that President Trump's doing rightly now that Biden ignored, we need to fix. So no future president can do that again. And we need to continue to remove people that were dumped into our country, not just the dangerous criminals, but vast majority of those individuals that were wrongly dumped into our country. And then we can have a conversation about what might be able to be done with certain people who have come here and been here a long time. I'm sympathetic people that have been here for 20 years and working in various forms or another, but not until we've done all that other, and even then, what we got to do is be mindful that there's someone for the person who's been here for 20 years and maybe they've followed our laws and they've done all the right way and they go to church and all the stuff and they work and they're great people. There's somebody who's been waiting in a line for 20 years, right? Well, what do you do say to that person sometimes,
Jenny Beth Martin (23:41):
And they've paid a lot of money waiting in
Chip Roy (23:43):
That line. Correct. Right. So I think that's the starting place is get our laws straight, remove people who shouldn't be here and then we can have a conversation, but let's be mindful the people who are waiting in line did it the right way.
Jenny Beth Martin (23:56):
I think that's all very, very important and these are discussions we're going to have to continue to have, because this issue was one of the reasons President Trump was elected, and now we have to figure out what did the voters want when they elected him with this and how do we codify what they wanted? You in your district have dealt with the flooding. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? It's such a heartbreaking situation, but even in that heartbreaking situation, it seems like there's been a lot of god's grace in there.
Chip Roy (24:31):
Yeah. Well, no, thank you for that. It was two weeks ago, right? July 3rd, we had just finished the big beautiful bill figuring out what we're going to do. And I was supposed to go to Kerrville where the floods occurred for the 4th of July, which is where my family goes every year, and there was a concert down there, Robert Hoke and all these great artists, and the president said, Hey, I'd like to have as many people at the bill signing as possible on the fourth. And I was watching the weather. Funny enough that late night around close to midnight, I said, man, it's going to rain. Looks like it's going to rain quite a bit, but we didn't have any idea yet about how bad, like look, it's going to be storming. Well, I was making the call. Maybe I'll stay here, do the bill signing and we'll just do a parade over the weekend or whatever.
Chip Roy (25:11):
So then I woke up the next morning and I started realizing how bad it was. It took a little while till about noon before I knew really how bad it was, started arranging my flights to go back, called the president. The president was gracious right out of the gate and so was the secretary, and they've been great the whole time getting down and helping us out, but getting to the heart of it, obviously brutal to lose those 27 little girls in a Christian camp that's been there for a century, multiple camps, almost 40 camps up and down that area, 18 that are right there along the river. People go, why would you have all these camps like right by the river? Because the river's awesome. It's beautiful. It's a wonderful spot that God gave us to go celebrate and live. There's a reason there's people who are camping there in RVs because it's just a fantastic clear water, a great place to be in the summer and it will continue to be.
Chip Roy (25:52):
That's the whole point. The people who have been there, the people of faith, they are strong in their faith. They understand that there's a much bigger story here that while they're devastated losing these little girls and nothing will fill that hole other than to whatever degree it can be the knowledge that those little girls are with Jesus, that people from across this country have recognized the power of faith in Kerrville. When you go into town, there's a huge cross on the hill, a great artist Max Grinder, put that up there, and there's a whole garden up there that I won't get into, but you should visit it if you're ever in that area. It's beautiful. And the amount of people that were going out with the gospel prayer groups with the cross, the outpouring of support, the community foundation of the Hill country has brought in $60 million.
Chip Roy (26:38):
They've now distributed about 8 million to go help put cash in people's pockets, help the local first responders, help businesses stay afloat, get zero interest loans, more money is pouring in. There are benefit concerts all during August. FEMA's there, they're doing what they should do, but I hope we're going to do this the right way. Local government, state of Texas, they're going to have a special session, they should deal with it. The Feds can be there to support, but we shouldn't be viewed as an ATM every time there's a disaster and I'm going to be a voice for that. I'll be a voice for the people at Kerrville, but I'm going to be a voice also here for fiscal sanity and making sure this is not a blank check for federal large S. Let's go rebuild these roads, rebuild these homes, get these camps back up and running through the power of faith, philanthropy, local government.
Chip Roy (27:23):
Texas is the eighth biggest economy in the world. We should be able to manage this. And mostly let's honor the memories of these little girls, but also all those others who lost their lives. There's 116 who have now confirmed fatalities. Three still missing. Let's honor them by rebuilding the camps, continuing to spread the gospel of Christ and letting people understand that we're all on this earth on borrowed time for a brief period. Let's make it the best we can and then know that we're going to be passing it down to the next generation better than we found
Jenny Beth Martin (27:50):
It. It's good that the community has come together and done so much for the people, and I'm glad to know that the community plans to keep on going and not let this make them stop doing what they enjoy, like enjoying being able to enjoy the river when it's calm.
Chip Roy (28:09):
There's always a good, always things you can learn. We'll figure out how to have better alarm systems, whatever, but let's just be very clear. I had friends of mine who were there who got alerts, woke up, it was three something in the morning. They saw the flood waters and they started moving their families out and within minutes, the way that flood came in, the waters were up in these houses and they had to scurry up and ride it out on the top of a roof. There was no boogieman here. This was mother nature. This is like an F five tornado. This is like a tsunami. This is a once in a however many years event. Most of these camps were built out of the a hundred year floodplains. Most people are doing things right here and the state will adjust. They'll fix some things, make better alarm systems, but ultimately, you got to live, you take your life in your own hands every time you get on a highway and drive home. And tomorrow could be like as a cancer survivor, I can tell you tomorrow, may or may not come
Jenny Beth Martin (29:01):
And
Chip Roy (29:02):
Just live life and go carry out your faith and let's try to build a free and safe country for our kids and grandkids.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:07):
I think that's the right way to approach it. And when I was in college, my community in Rome, Georgia went through the 50 year flood and a month later, a hundred year flood, and I worked at Radio Shack at the time, went into the mall on a Saturday morning for a morning meeting.
Chip Roy (29:27):
We're just dating ourselves right there at the
Jenny Beth Martin (29:29):
Radio Shack in the mall, radio Shack and a mall and went in. We're putting everything up as high as we could, all the merchandise up. My manager was dealing with sandbags, my wound up coming in to get me, and when we left, when I went in and he dropped me off, I could walk in the parking lot when we left, the water was up to my waist.
Chip Roy (29:49):
It was back way steep
Jenny Beth Martin (29:50):
And I mean it was less than two hours. It was so fast and we were dealing in that community. I don't know how many people died, but it was much more about loss of property than loss of life. What happened in Texas is so awful because it happened in the middle of the night and people just didn't have time.
Chip Roy (30:09):
That's the thing. It was four to six in the morning. Everyone's sound asleep. And even the ones who weren't the water came up so fast. I could tell you story after story, but the heartfelt stories are Dick Eastland who ran and owned Camp Mystic. He gave his life trying to save those little girls. And that's the story. It's the story of Jane Ragsdale. She gave her life and she saved I think four or five little girls based on the stories we're told, and they're heroes and they're now with their savior, and they'll definitely get the life well-lived speech from the good Lord. Lord knows I got a lot of work to do to earn that, but I'm deeply, deeply appreciative of the people in the community who have rallied, and it'll be a long effort. Rebuildings tough, but we'll do it. That's what you do.
Jenny Beth Martin (30:59):
That's right. Well, and we'll make sure we keep them in our prayers and to continue to donate to help.
Chip Roy (31:05):
Absolutely.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:05):
Help with it. Absolutely. Well, I really appreciate your time today. Let me just ask you one last question. What can activists do to help with the Save Act and also with Amnesty and the other issues we talked about?
Chip Roy (31:15):
Sure. Just be a loud voice in the ear of the people that represent you, okay? Whether it's representatives in Congress, whether it's senators, even in the state, legislatures, that you want a sovereign nation, that you want to ensure that only citizens vote, that you think the census should reflect, that you don't want to see any give on this, that you support what the administration's doing, but it's just a down payment, right? Let's keep in mind that everything they're doing right now and stopping the flow and whatever they've removed, let's say they've removed a hundred thousand people, well, 5 million or so came in. We're not even close to scraping back to get to the place. Even when President Trump first ran when he said Build the wall, we are way past that and we're just trying to claw back. So just remind people that they've got a lot of work to do and you expect them to do it.
Chip Roy (32:01):
So call your folks, let 'em know, no amnesty only American citizens vote. You want to see action. You got to Republicans in the House and the Senate, and you expect them to deliver. There's some hurdles. Be realistic about 60 votes in the Senate, but you expect us to try every way we can and then give some of us a little grace when we're trying to hold the line. And some of the powers that be in town at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue like to kind of give us a little bit of trouble because they want to get something done, and we say, well, that's great, but we want to make sure that we're standing up for the people who sent us here. So appreciate it and appreciate what you do, Jim.
Jenny Beth Martin (32:37):
Well, thank you so much, chip. Thanks for being part of this today.
Narrator (32:41):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mohan and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (33:01):
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